Session Chair: Ramé Hemstreet - Kaiser Permanente

Health care facilities are increasingly adding microgrids to their electrical systems for power reliability and resilience. Past guidelines required health care organizations to use fossil fuel-fired generators for backup power for most of their facilities. But resilient power has come a long way, and, with help from the California Energy Commission (CEC), the health care industry can now use solar, batteries, fuel cells, wind turbines, and other renewable energy technologies for backup power generation. This session will draw on operational health care microgrid projects to illustrate that these systems can simultaneously lower utility costs, reduce facilities’ carbon footprint, and provide much needed resilience. The panel also will share challenges encountered, goals realized, lessons learned, and the cascading benefits of the integration of microgrids.